72 Misquoted Sayings

In the realm of popular sayings and proverbs, some have stood the test of time, echoing across generations and cultures. However, many of these sayings have evolved over the years, often straying from their original form or intent. These misquoted expressions, while still familiar, often add a twist of humor or irony to their traditional counterparts. In this collection, we delve into 72 of the most frequently misquoted sayings, exploring their origins and the often entertaining transformations they've undergone. Join us as we shine a light on these linguistic quirks, offering a fresh perspective on familiar adages and perhaps sharing a chuckle or two along the way.

1. “Love all, trust a few,Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemyRather in power than use; and keep thy friendUnder thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,But never tax'd for speech.” - William Shakespeare

2. “There are only two forces at work in this world- black and white. Only people are grey.” - Chris Heimerdinger

3. “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” - Stephen Hunt

4. “It's not given to people to judge what's right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.” - Leo Tolstoy

5. “Psychopaths... people who know the differences between right and wrong, but don't give a shit. That's what most of my characters are like.” - Elmore Leonard

6. “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” - Leo Tolstoy

7. “Just because I do not accept the teachings of the devotaries does not mean I've discarded a belief in right and wrong.""But the Almighty determines what is right!""Must someone, some unseen thing, declare what is right for it to be right? I believe that my own morality -- which answers only to my heart -- is more sure and true than the morality of those who do right only because they fear retribution.” - Brandon Sanderson

8. “Everybody is wrong about everything, just about all the time.” - Chuck Klosterman

9. “Gossip, as usual, was one-third right and two-thirds wrong.” - L.M. Montgomery

10. “What can go wrong, will go wrong. ” - Murphey

11. “The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever.” - Herb Caen

12. “If I am right, Thy grace impartStill in the right to stay;If I am wrong, O, teach my heartTo find that better way!” - Alexander Pope

13. “This isn't right. This isn't even wrong.” - Wolfgang Pauli

14. “Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.” - Robert Bloch

15. “Do what you think is right. Don't let people make the decision of right or wrong for you.” - Steve Maraboli

16. “Even if toxic people are right about what is "good," they are wrong if the approach is not healthy.” - John L. Lund

17. “Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong - but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong.” - Robert A. Heinlein

18. “But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him; the horror was that he might also be wrong.” - George Orwell

19. “The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.” - Mark Twain

20. “Clear thinking at the wrong moment can stifle creativity.” - Karl Lagerfeld

21. “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” - William Kingdon Clifford

22. “There's a hard life for every silver spoon.There's a touch of gray for every shade of blue.That's the way I see life.If there was nothing wrong...Then there'd be nothing right.” - Shinedown

23. “That's the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you're never wrong.” - Christopher Buckley

24. “It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.” - John Maynard Keynes

25. “It's sometimes funny to watch some people doing something the wrong way but doing it confidently. Even more funny, they succeeded.” - Toba Beta [Betelgeuse Incident]

26. “... In love, everyone does things that hurt the other person, so there really is no "Right" and "Wrong". You just have to decide what you're willing to forgive” - Yvonne Wood

27. “I can't help it. I'm just a big gasbag. I still got leftover barbeque gas." She squeezed her eyes shut tight and did a full minute-long far. "Excuse me," she said.” - Janet Evanovich

28. “Lesson number one, she muttered, love is beyond your grasp. Lesson two: nowhere is it written that you're guaranteed fairness. And three: there's only right and wrong.” - Sandy Blair

29. “Some string theorists prefer to believe that string theory is too arcane to be understood by human beings, rather than consider the possibility that it might just be wrong.” - Lee Smolin

30. “The Wrong we have Done, Thought, or Intended Will wreak its Vengeance onOur SOULS.” - Carl Gustav Jung

31. “At a certain level of learning and understanding,right or wrong ain't the issue, but different interest.” - Toba Beta

32. “Good laws make it easier to do right and harder to do wrong.” - William Ewart Gladstone

33. “What's right isn't what's worked.” - Toba Beta

34. “There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. ” - Ayn Rand

35. “I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.” - Tallulah Bankhead

36. “I don't know,' he said irritably. 'Is it meant to improve you?'She swiveled toward him, eyes wide with shock.'Because nothing could,' he added. Her mouth dropped in astonishment. Blotchy scarlet rushed her complexion. One would have thought he'd shot her.Oh dear God!He realized belatedly how wrong it had sounded.'No! God... that is to say.. nothing is necessary to improve you. Nothing could possibly make you better... than you already are.” - Julie Anne Long

37. “The world is full of men who want to be right, when actually the secret of a man's strength and his pathway to true honor is his ability to admit fault when he has failed. God wants to fill the church with men who can say they are wrong when THEY ARE WRONG. A man who is willing to humble himself before God and his family and say:"I was wrong." will find that his family has all the confidence in the world in him and will much more readily follow him. If he stubbornly refuses to repent or admit he was wrong, their confidence in him and in his leadership erodes.” - Jim Anderson

38. “Doing what is right will always keep you moving forward toward your destiny, but choosing the wrong way will keep you stuck in the same spot:No Where!-Anita R. Sneed-Carter” - Anita R. Sneed-Carter

39. “There are people in the world, who are just wrong, and then there are the masses of population that are right, or at the very least they lie in the veil of between. I on the other hand, do not belong to any group. I don’t exist. It’s not that I don’t have substance; I have a body like everyone else. I can feel the fire when it burns against my skin, the rain when it caresses my face and the breeze as it fingers my hair. I have all the senses that other people do. I am just empty, inside.” - J.D. Stroube

40. “It's best to let her go," he says.No, no, that's wrong. It's never right to give up on someone.” - Lauren DeStefano

41. “The last thing I heard before falling asleep was, "Everything is okay now."No matter how much I wanted to believe Stellan, I knew he was terribly wrong.” - Markelle Grabo

42. “Trust the Simi. She ain't never wrong.” - Sherrilyn Kenyon

43. “When you think you're right, you're most likely wrong.” - Jodi Picoult

44. “Life was a short window and there was no sense in doing the wrong thing over and over even if it was so difficult to stop.” - Anna Godbersen

45. “The world dread nothing so much as being convinced of their errors.” - William Hazlitt

46. “Olivier took a deep breath, then turned and bowed in farewell. Gersonides nodded in return, then thought of something."The manuscript you brought me, by that bishop. It argues that understanding is more important than movement. That action is virtuous only if it reflects pure comprehension, and that virtue comes from the comprehension, not the action."Olivier frowned. "So?""Dear boy, I must tell you a secret.""What?""I do believe it is wrong.” - Iain Pears

47. “What's wrong with people?" she says, almost too quiet for me to hear. "Were they born with parts missing or did it fall out somewhere along the way?” - Isaac Marion

48. “I'm too old to figure out the rights and wrongs of everything.” - Barbara Else

49. “I thought I understood what was best. I knew too little and believed too soon.” - Gloria Whelan

50. “When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong-- or absolutely right.” - Albert Guinon

51. “Being sad with the right people is better than being happy with the wrong ones.” - Philippos

52. “Being over there changes a man. Right and wrong don't look so different anymore to some.” - M.L. Stedman

53. “There is no right or wrong, only what we believe is more right or more wrong” - Evan Meekins

54. “I wonder where you got that idea from? I mean, the idea that it's feeble to change your mind once it's made up. That's a wrong idea, you know. Make up your mind about things, by all means - but if something happens to show that you are wrong, then it is feeble not to change your mind, Elizabeth. Only the strongest people have the pluck to change their minds, and say so, if they see they have been wrong in their ideas.” - Enid Blyton

55. “It's risky most of the time, but its better to listen to your heart.” - Jonathan Anthony Burkett

56. “And just when I though things were starting to get better, everything had gone wrong again.” - Rachel Ward

57. “He's wrong he's so he's so wrong he's more wrong than an upside-down rainbow.” - Tahereh Mafi

58. “I find there are usually no extremes in relationships, even friendship. One is not always right or never wrong.” - Boone Brux

59. “it can't be wrong, if it feels so wrong” - Josh Stern

60. “There was something else I couldn't quite define--something that made me uneasy. We were a wrong fit, like unmatching puzzle pieces.” - Heather Anastasiu

61. “Whenever you see confusion, you can be sure that something is wrong. Disorder in the world implies that something is out of place. Usually, at the heart of all disorder you will find man in rebellion against God. It began in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day.” - A.W. Tozer

62. “Life is like defusing a bomb, once you cut the wrong wire your whole life is ruined.” - Mohamed Zahy Hussain

63. “It’s not easy to kill; it’s not supposed to be. If it is, then there’s something wrong with you. But sometimes good people have to do unpleasant things just so we can come home at night to our kids.” - Skip Coryell

64. “Just because it's something original, eccentric or you're not used to it; doesn't mean it's wrong.” - Sandra Chami Kassis

65. “If you lose a man because you thought the best but were all wrong, then that's his fault. If you lose him because you thought the very worst and were wrong, then that's yours. And there's nothing so sad as missing out on love for lack of a little faith.” - Jennifer Blake

66. “I don’t like seeing you hit.”“Well, to be quite honest, I don’t like being hit unless it’s by you.” As soon as it was out of my mouth, I realized what I had said. “That sounded all sorts of wrong.”“Insanely so, actually.”“To be clear,” I said to any overhearing ears, “I hit him back--”“Hard.”“It’s a very give-and-take, non-abuse type hitting situation…”The sides of Liam’s mouth folded up like an accordion. “You should probably stop now.”“I’m trying. My mouth keeps moving of its own accord.” - Tammy Blackwell

67. “As you grow older, it becomes harder to feel 100 percent happy; you learn all the things that can go wrong, you become superstitious about tempting fate, about bringing disaster upon your life by accidentally feeling too good one day.” - Douglas Coupland

68. “I hate to be wrong. It makes me feel like a failure. Being wrong has the same affect on me as a lack of food or sleep. It lowers my entire mood. But, I need to be proved wrong sometimes, as it restores humility, and doesn't allow my ego to swell to stupidly big sizes.” - Paul Kelly

69. “Not doing anything can be worse than doing the wrong thing.” - Alexandra Potter

70. “How can you say that so casually? You're talking about the possible death of hundreds of people, yourself included."He gave a negligent shrug. "Wrong place, wrong time. Life sucks.” - shannon k. butcher

71. “Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.” - Democritus

72. “I'VE NEVER BEEN VERY SURE ABOUT WHAT IS RIGHT, said Bill Door. I AM NOT SURE THERE IS SUCH A THING AS RIGHT. OR WRONG. JUST PLACES TO STAND.” - Terry Pratchett